Five Minutes to Midnight
by Wolf's Edge
Summary: Suliet and Jate. After the bomb detonates Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and a critically injured Juliet are in for the shock of their lives when they end up in LA. The catch: The year is 2040. Aaron is all grown up with a family of his own and Jay, Sawyer and Juliet's future son, is dating Claire, Jack and Kate's future daughter.
1. Chapter 1

There isn't much to say about this fic only that I found it in the document graveyard on my computer and I don't think I ever posted it in its entirety. It has a fairly equal helping of Sawyer/Juliet and Jack/Kate pairing plus we get to see Sawyer getting the shock of his life when he finds out that Juliet is alive after the incident.

**Five Minutes to Midnight**

**One: "**Auld Lang Syne"

"You really wanna go fer round two, Doc Twinkle-toes?" Jay LaFleur teased over the thrumming pulse of the band. His lips curved steadily upward, flashing a dimpled grin as the man in front of him struggled to adjust his footing in time with the music.

Aaron jerked his head up, squinting as the beat changed and the lights dimmed. Five minutes to midnight and the smell of booze and thick perfume hung heavy in the air. He frowned as though just catching on to the jeer.

"You think I can't dance?" He breathed letting his tongue scrape along his dry lips.

"If ya can, ya sure as hell haven't managed it yet." Jay smirked. His head was tilted in such a way that the flush of perhaps one too many Amstel Light's crept up the side of his neck. The effect wasn't enough to make his words stick together, but his hands shook slightly as he wobbled toward the other man with his best Cheshire cat grin.

"Well, at least I'm doing better than that guy." Aaron retorted, pointing into the heart of the dance floor where one of the older x-ray techs was trying to coerce the gathering crowd into doing the Macarena.

"Damn." Jay shook his scruffy blonde hair out of his eyes and snorted loudly. "Thought that went out with the Stone Age."

Aaron nodded appreciatively as he tugged at the collar of his tuxedo, undoing the bow tie so that it hung limply across his neck. He was hot and itchy enough as it was.

"So where's your girl?" Jay changed the subject, noticing for the first time that the other man, like himself, was alone.

"Oh, she went to check up on Caitlyn, she's been hounding the babysitter all night." He rolled his eyes and accepted a tall glass of Laurent-Perrier from a server as they passed.

"You know how she is."

"Excuse me. Could I have your attention everyone?" A wary voice cut through the air as the music dulled. A gray haired man in his mid-sixties shuffled onto the stage. Marc Silverman beamed down at the restless gathering of St. Sebastian's Hospital employees and their spouses.

"I just wanted to interrupt for a few moments to..." The retired oncologist winced as the microphone squawked, startling those who had been standing near the speakers that hung around the ballroom of the Lynford Hotel.

"Right, well, as I was saying I just wanted to thank all of you for coming out here tonight to celebrate St. Sebastian's 20th annual Gala on this wonderful New Year's Eve." His voice slowly teetered off addressing all the wonderful things that the hospital had accomplished over the past twelve months.

Aaron yawned, sipping at the bubbly drink in his hand and thoroughly enjoying the way the strong liquid made his lips pucker. The alcohol made him feel sated and content as he made his rounds across the ballroom, admiring the decor and making small talk with those he knew. He sighed deeply, letting his eyes drift shut for just a moment in order to allow the sensation of mild inebriation washed over him. Tomorrow, the most strenuous thing he would have to do was cook a turkey with his wife and spend some quality time with his family. The thought made his heart swell.

The clicking of heels shook him from his tired reverie. He turned his head, glancing over his shoulder.

"Hey." His face lit up, eyes wandering over the sleek black cocktail dress she had hurriedly slipped into.

"He's been going nuts without you, you know."

Dr. Claire Shephard rolled her eyes and regarded her cousin with a serious, considering look. Her curly brown hair appeared slightly out of place from being pinned up in a surgical cap since mid-morning, she swat at it with her left hand, doing her best to arrange the stray curls behind her ears.

"Sorry, surgery ran late. Six car pileup on the interstate. Who did you bribe to get the night off anyway?"

"It's called seniority." He smiled. "And I put in for it last January first after I worked straight through Christmas _and _New Year's. Holly was not a happy camper."

"I remember that. Didn't she make you sleep in the den for a week?" She smiled at him, but wasn't entirely focused on the conversation, her pale green eyes drifted toward the heart of the crowd.

"More like a month." Aaron groaned and leaned over to give her a quick peck on the cheek in greeting.

"I had a hard enough time explaining to Caitlyn why daddy was 'playing camp out' in the basement."

His eyes caught what she was looking for, "Jay's over by the bar," he explained knowingly.

"Don't worry, I think he might still be sober enough to get a decent dance out of."

"He'd better," Claire smirked before she sauntered off in Jay's direction.

The music dulled for a moment as Marc Silverman announced that it was 'three minutes to midnight' as he cued the band to take them in to one last song before the countdown.

"Did I miss anything?"

Aaron felt a slender hand slip into his. Their fingers interlocked and he spun around, pulling her against him in such that a way that he could slip his arms around her waist and rest his head on her shoulder.

"Just Claire wondering if Jay's gonna actually remember New Year's in the morning. How's our girl doing?"

Holly sighed, settling into her husband's embrace.

"Fell asleep about an hour ago. Insisted on trying to wait up to 'see the New Year'."

Her deep purple evening gown flowed down over her stilettos as Aaron guided her toward the dance floor. She could feel him grin into the crook of her neck.

"See the New Year huh? I used to try to do that when I was her age. Never quite made it until I was eight."

"What did you see?" Holly reached up to re-tie his bowtie.

He ran his hand under the stubbled ridge of his jaw thoughtfully.

"Not a damn thing. My neighbors weren't really all that in to fireworks so I didn't even get to see that much. After that I started considering the whole thing a big waste of time. Nothing special about it in the slightest."

"Of course there is," she corrected him, letting him tuck a stray strand of dark hair behind her ear. "It marks the dawn of something new and exciting. Good friends and second chances. Auld Lang Syne."

"And turkey with a hyperactive six year old?" He asked playfully.

"That too," she agreed. "Especially when her dad doesn't have to spend it in the hospital."

"Not even turning on my iphone," he agreed. "So you have no worries about that."

"Hey Doc, gonna ramp it up a bit or what?" Jay interrupted the slow rhythm their bodies had created with the music, emitting an exuberant shout as he bobbed his head.

"You're bordering on being worse than Macarena guy, LaFleur. Maybe you should find him some coffee, Claire." Aaron did his best to suppress a grin as he craned his neck toward her.

Claire, meanwhile, had removed her phone from her purse and proceeded to film the odd, uncoordinated movements Jay was making to the slow music.

"I could, but I'd rather give him something to watch at dinner tomorrow night."

"As long as he keeps it G rated," Holly interjected, snickering. "Wow, I've never seen him this..."

"Drunk?" Aaron offered bluntly. "Neither have I. All the better to rub it in later."

"Alright, everyone." Marc cut in over the music which was dying fast. "Looks like we're on our last 30 seconds of 2039!" A screen lit up behind him flashing a huge 30 in thick black script. 29...28...27...

"Guess this is it." Aaron glanced out the window. It was a beautiful, clear night. Hopefully there would be fireworks.

"Getting all excited for 'nothing special' again?" Holly teased.

...16...15...14...

"Oh I'm excited for something," he spoke in a way that made his eyes twinkle.

...12...11...10...

"And what might that be, Dr. Austen?" She smirked.

The numbers on the screen turned to red. ...9...8...7...

"You still with me, Jay?" Claire chided him as she settled into his unsuspecting arms.

...6...5...4...

"Missed you," Jay admitted with a goofy drunken grin. Somehow she knew his words meant far more than he was letting on.

...3...2...1...HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The band burst into a course of Auld Lang Syne, fireworks cracked in the distance and a brilliant white flash filled the whole of the Lynford ball room. The surge was enough to cut the power and suddenly everything was happening at once. The music died, someone cried out, someone else reset the breaker and the room was bathed in caustic fluorescent light.

"What the..." Aaron blinked pulling out of the kiss he was sharing with Holly. "Was that lightening?"

"I don't know, but it tripped the power." Claire said, striding up to them with Jay in tow.

"You did say that nothing ever exciting..." Holly started.

"Not exactly what I had in mind," he cut her off. "Even as a kid."

"Help! I need help!" A voice hollered in the distance. That was easy enough, there was literally a room full of St. Sebastian's finest standing right there, but everyone was so preoccupied that Aaron was the only one who was paying enough attention to notice.

He glanced toward the lobby.

"Stay here," he whispered to Holly who nodded as he broke off into a run.

"What's going on?" He asked, squinting as he emerged into the brightly light foyer. The harsh fluorescent lights reflected against the slate tiles, momentarily blinding him as he struggled to get his bearings. He drew in several shallow breaths feeling winded and a little drunk, but he forced himself to focus on the Lynford employee who had started to scream again.

Aaron pressed a gentle hand against her shoulder. She gasped when she saw him, rambling something in a language he couldn't quite recognize.

"I'm a doctor, can I help you?" he spoke slowly, feigning his best at patience.

The older lady trembled and pointed. He followed her shaking fingers, not noticing the splatter of blood on her uniform. The stain on the floor however, was impossible to miss.

His tongue caught in his throat as he took a hesitant step forward, eyebrows knitting together in disbelief. It was impossible, but there it was, four bodies, tossed in an undignified heap in the lobby of the Lynford Hotel.

His knees felt watery as he pushed himself to take that final step forward.

"They just...appeared...out of..." she babbled in English, her bottom lip trembling in such a way that it threatened to form a permanent crease across her cheeks.

"Hey, it's alright. I..." his mouth closed and he glanced at the bodies again. Was it really? People didn't usually just pop out of thin air, especially not these people. Aaron's eyes narrowed as he surveyed the scene in front of him. There was blood everywhere...this had to be some kind of...

"Hey Doc, Rockstar in there is getn' ready to...what the fuck?" He turned, meeting Jay's stormy blue eyes with a hard look.

"I don't know." Aaron croaked. "Just get Claire, there's blood and lots of it." He started to shrug out of his black sport-coat, tossing it onto the polished floor.

"Jay!" he frowned, craning his neck to catch the other man's stunned gaze. He was still trying to shake the feeling himself.

"Get Sparks, right." Jay nodded, tearing his eyes away long enough to force himself to turn around and retreat back toward the main ballroom. He froze again a second later and glanced over his shoulder. His scruffy blonde hair was cut so it hung just above his collar making the back of his neck prickle with unease.

"Ma?" he mouthed dumbly, his voice so low it could barely be considered a sound at all.

"Jay, get Claire! We have to help them." Aaron erupted, his knees buckled into the hard floor as he bent for a closer look. Thankfully, with eleven years of medical training the rest came without thought.

"Hey, hey. Are you alright? I'm a doctor." He crouched over Juliet, mumbling as if on autopilot. It was a stupid question but he needed to establish some level of consciousness. Thankfully his body moved on its own accord without too much instruction from his brain, which was still deadened with shock.

"Juliet?" Aaron pressed against her breastbone with a large knuckled fist. She moaned in pain as he rotated it slightly, rocking it back and forth on the flat plane of her chest to try and rouse her. He hadn't looked at the others yet, but he prayed to god they weren't in as bad a shape as she was. There was blood everywhere.

"Come on," he breathed, feeling her fingers jump against the hand that was trying to take her pulse. He bit his lip and pinched the large muscle curving into her shoulder blade, electing a louder yelp of protest. She was responding to pain.

"Okay. That's good. You're gonna be okay." He muttered in relief, doubting she was actually alert enough to hear what he was saying to her. He kept talking to her anyway, stopping only long enough to coax the terrified hotel employee into fetching him the large first-aid kit that was hanging on the wall behind the reception desk.

She was bleeding internally; Aaron grimily noted the mottled bruising pattern stretching across her abdomen as he cut away her muddy, blood-soaked shirt, exposing her from neck to waist. Her cracked ribs offered no resistance as he ran his hands down her side, palpating her abdomen and frowning as her fingers curled. He gently slid his hands lower still to check her groin when something crashed into him ―hard.

"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HER!" Sawyer screamed. Awake and wide-eyed he knocked Aaron headlong onto the hard tile using the full force of his body. His nostrils flared, the raw force of the blow making him gasp and drive his fist deeper into Aaron's stomach in recoil. The younger man winced feeling his throat constrict from the intensity of the pain.

Sawyer snarled using his weight to press the young doctor harder against the floor. "What the fuck are you doing to her?" He spat, his eyes dead with an uncontrollable rage.

"Aaron!" Someone cried and the next thing Aaron knew the larger man was being pulled off of him by Jay who was grunting and manhandling the stranger through the large glass lobby doors into the crisp January night before the situation became an all-out brawl.

"Hell yeah!" Jay let the rush of adrenaline course though his body overriding the depressive effects of the alcohol he had consumed in the past few hours. Sawyer's thrashing body bucked against him in a motion of pure fury, doing everything could to evade the solid form that was forcing him back further still until he collided with the abrasive brick exterior of the building.

His eyes glowed with a rage that his body wasn't quite able to sustain. He was pinned and everything was fuzzy as though he brain could not work through what was going on…he just needed to get to Juliet.

"Juliet." He let out a mournful whimper that almost sounded inhuman. It made Jay start and ease off slightly, watching the man pitch forward, knees buckling as the will to fight evaporated from him into the chilly January air.

"Hey." He pulled the man back up, bracing him between the wall and his own body. Jay ran his hands along the tattered jumpsuit, memorizing how it felt, how it made him feel just as grubby as the other man looked. His face was riddled with cuts and bruises, some far worse than others. Sawyer breathed heavily, starting to shiver as he no longer possessed the stamina to think and hold himself up right at the same time.

The tiny shift in his position was enough to make Jay's expression harden as it exposed the crumpled stitching of the man's chest pocket into the silver moonlight.

'LaFleur. Head of Security.'

"Son of a bitch," he huffed, bracing himself on either side of his... dad.

In a way it confirmed what his gut was already telling him, but the realization made it no less bizarre. That was the only way he could describe it _bizarre_. He stared ahead, fixing his tired eyes into his father's glassy blue ones only to be met with an unfocused gaze.

"If I let you up, you gonna keep it cool?" He grunted in his most threatening authoritative voice. As a senior field agent for the Los Angeles Counterintelligence Division of the FBI Jay LaFleur was well used to using intimidation to accomplish what needed to be done, but tonight he was just a man, a man trying to spend a quiet New Year's Eve in the company of his fiancé and some good friends.

Fireworks cracked in the distance resulting in a high pitched screech as red and gold sparks zigzagged through the sky before bursting with a loud pop. Like a million tiny bombs raining over them they exploded into whirls of brilliant color. Variations of blues and greens and purples, yellows, oranges, and silver all illuminating the skyline in a subdued glow.

The more pronounced the sounds became the more Sawyer shook. To him it may as well have been a bomb...over and over as he watched her fall in his mind's eye. Over and over that terrified look burned straight through to his bones. How could he have ever let go? He killed her.

Jay fixed him with a critical stare, recognizing the signs of shock almost immediately. He wasn't shivering from the cold. His body was shutting down; trapped in the world his mind was creating for him and filtering out everything else completely.

"You ain't gonna talk to me huh?" He tried to keep his tone light despite the circumstances. The first-aid training he did have, rather that which he had bothered to pay attention to, told him that he had to do something to rectify the situation. 'Critical intervention' the damn textbook had called it back at the academy. Relax the body and the mind will follow.

Sighing, he slipped out of his tuxedo jacket and slid it over the other man's shoulders, thankful that LaFleur was about as pliable as a rag doll. Right now the best he could do was focus on what he could treat. He could get the man somewhere warm and hope one of the two docs would be around to snap him out of it.

"Juliet." Sawyer breathed again as his head swung from side to side, searching for her in the darkness.

"She's in good hands, Chief." Jay assured more to himself than anyone else. The pleasant woozy feeling brought about by the alcohol was starting to return at full force and it took all of his concentration to lead the other man, by the elbow, down the walkway and across the parking lot to Aaron's spacious Cadillac SUV.

The crisp white dress shirt he had been wearing all evening was now bloody and the top button that did up his collar was missing. The fourth one down snapped off as he half guided, half carried his father into the passenger side of the vehicle.

"That's better, ain't it?" He asked, as he redirected the heating vents and propped the man up against the window just as an ambulance tore around the corner, lights and sirens blazing.

Inside the Lynford Hotel, Aaron lay flat on his back waiting for the paralyzing pain in his chest to subside. He let the air rush into his lungs and willed himself to force the pain to the back of his mind.

"Aaron, what..." Claire was staring down at him, her hands gently probing his chest.

"I don't know," He wheezed, biting back a stuttering breath as he sat up. "There was a scream and they just appeared here."

Holly did her best to mask the look of worry on her face as she helped her husband to her feet.

"That was..." she paused, glancing toward the main doors where Jay had promptly exited.

"His Dad." Aaron conformed, following her gaze.

His expression hardened. "Juliet's in rough shape. Possible C-Spine. Your ballgame, Claire. An ambulance has already been called. Jack and Kate are out, but seem fine from what I can tell they... "

"Stop!" Dr. Claire Shephard had turned several shades whiter. "You're talking about them like they're actually here."

"They are." Aaron straightened, glancing at Juliet with renewed urgency.

"I don't understand this either," he sighed, too full of adrenaline to let himself doubt the situation. "We'll get to the bottom of this, but right now we've got to help them."

She gave him an apprehensive nod, settling on the floor to examine Juliet's head and neck while Aaron shifted over to where Jack and Kate were still lying oblivious.

"Jack's got a concussion, but that's about it." He announced, suddenly thankful that the band had resumed playing and no one else had bothered to leave the main ballroom.

"Kate's just unconscious." His head turned in the direction of the music.

"Holly, can you pass me my jacket?" Aaron pointed to a spot on the floor as he started to maneuver Jack out of the blood soaked coveralls.

"What are you doing?" She wearily deposited the garment in his lap.

Aaron glanced up at her.

"Hold him up." He said in his most clinical tone, transferring Jack's weight against Holly's crouching form.

"Can't explain this," he offered and started to work Jack's arms though the coat now that he had been stripped down to a faded blue t-shirt and a pair of jeans. "So we'll just say they had a little too much to drink."

"Aaron, her injuries wouldn't even come close to fitting in with that." Claire asserted in a shaky voice.

"She needs surgery. We'll come up with something..." he assured, but stopped talking at the sight of the two paramedics wheeling a stretcher in through the wide glass entrance way.

"Hey, Dr. A. What have ya got for us?" The older of the two waved.

Aaron tilted his head in recognition. "Good to see you, Mike. Suspected C-Spine, responsive to pain only with a flail chest and a possible ruptured spleen. Definite internal bleeding. Get her collared up on a spinal and started on 2mg Ativan along with oxygen by BVM at a flow rate of 15 LPM to try and get her O2 saturation up."

Mike, a slightly balding, portly man nodded, sending his partner back to the rig to fetch an oxygen tank and a spinal board while Aaron helped hook up a small, pocket-sized monitor to her chest.

"This is Dr. Claire Shephard. Spinal surgeon." He motioned to his cousin. "She's gonna be calling the shots on this one tonight."

Claire shot him a lethal look.

"I've been drinking." Aaron explained calmly.

"I need you to do this one for Jay, Claire." He told her gently.

"Alright." She agreed, giving Juliet an apprehensive once over as Aaron and the two paramedics worked on rolling her onto the spinal board which was then lifted onto a stretcher. She took a deep, shaky breath and gripped one of the metal rails on the stretcher, nodding to the shorter of the two paramedics. He appeared to shrug off her apprehension.

"St. Sebastian's?" he asked.

"Yes. Call ahead and tell them to stand by for a possible code 999. We need the OR prepped and a surgical team standing by."

Her heart started to slow as the glass doors opened and they guided the stretcher into the cool January night.

Aaron watched them leave with a puzzled expression that he didn't seem to leave his face as he turned back to his wife, glancing briefly at the two bodies that still lay crumpled at his feet.

"Help me get'em up," he said, frowning.

It occurred to him at that moment that this night couldn't possibly get any stranger.


	2. Chapter 2

**Five Minutes to Midnight**

**Two: "**Dr. Aaron Austen**"**

"Juliet." He extended his hand to reach for her, but something kept pushing him back, forming a barrier, preventing him from getting to her. He could hear her screaming; begging him, as he came up solid against an invisible surface. He pounded on it, screaming back at her.

"Juliet!"

Her hands were slipping…he had to break through…he had to get to her.

"Son of a bitch!" Jay propelled himself forward in the driver's seat to grab Sawyer before he put himself through the windshield.

"What are ya tryn' to do?" He hissed.

The man recoiled in response to the added constraint and Jay had to concentrate all his efforts on not getting clocked in the jaw.

"Just calm down," he asserted in what he hoped was a soothing tone as he twisted around in his seat, jarring the heating vents in the process.

"She's gonna be okay, hell, she has to be okay in order for us to be having this conversation."

He balanced against the console as he caught his breath, pressing most of his weight into the other man's chest to keep him from falling forward. The close proximity appeared to keep him still for the moment, but his eyes were still roaming tirelessly around the vehicle in the same jerky motion that often accompanied dreaming. More like a nightmare in his case.

"Gotta relax now." Jay told him and maneuvered the seatbelt across his chest, strapping the man in.

"This is for your own good."

The restriction only upset him more and he started to thrash wildly, seeming to gasp for breath as he struggled to free himself.

"You son of a bitch, I got to get to her!" Sawyer erupted, spitting in Jay's direction. His eyes seemed to glow with an animalistic rage that appeared to disorient him further. Jay bit his lip, but remained braced so that most of his weight was distributed across the passenger seat, forming a human barrier between Sawyer, and the window.

His hip bumped against the display, turning on the radio as Sawyer lurched only to come up solid with the seatbelt locking against his chest.

"Fuck," Jay hissed and raised his arms, leaning further into the seat. He was thankful when Aaron appeared in the rear-view mirror toting something lopsided and heavy over one shoulder.

"Claire's gone in the ambulance with Juliet," he said as he opened the side door.

"We seem to have her stabilized for now, but she's got a long surgery ahead of her."

"Yeah?" Jay asked in a strained voice.

Aaron blinked, glancing up from where he was arranging Jack on the back seat. His eyes flicked over the scene, Jay facing him, his chest smack against Sawyer's as he practically sat on the man's lap, straddling him.

"What are you?" he paused, not sure how to continue.

Jay scowled at him.

"Tryn' ta keep him from going through the god damn window," he breathed.

Aaron nodded absently. "Think you can go back and help Holly with Kate?"

"If you can deal with Rambo here."

"His face is all bleedn'" Jay added in as an afterthought.

"I'll try to talk to him, give me a sec." Aaron crawled across the back seat next to Jack, whose head had lolled against the window. Even in the dull light he could see where a purple cast was starting to colour his temple. He touched it gingerly, watching the man's jaw clench in response. Sighing, he reached over the man's shoulder to pull the seatbelt across his chest. Jack barely stirred.

"I'm coming, Juliet!"

Aaron grimaced at the sound of shuffling.

"Ain't ya got something you can knock him out with or something?" Jay whined from the front.

"Not on me." Aaron slid out of the vehicle and shut the door. He appeared, a moment later, in the driver's seat that Jay had vacated.

"Have you tried talking to him?"

"Oh yeah, before you got here we were haven' a real deep conversation about our feelings and shit like that. You a god damn shrink now?" Jay shot back, but he wasn't quite finished.

"What the hell do ya want me ta do ask him? He's out of his god damn mind, I don't see how chatn' it up about this year's top 40 is really gonna help much."

"You always this lippy when you're drunk?" Aaron ground out in a voice that was lost over some new age rendition of Silver Bells which was flooding the small space around them. He jabbed at the touch panel to turn off the radio and eyed Sawyer hesitantly.

"Get Kate." He instructed. "I got this."

"Whatever you say, Doc. No need to get yer stethoscope in a knot." Jay shot him a venomous look, but crawled across the console to exit through the back. The slamming of the door seemed to jar Sawyer and cause Jack to mutter something in his sleep. Aaron winced.

"Juliet's gonna be fine, James." Aaron tried a different tactic. He kept his voice low and calm as he reached over to squeeze the man's shoulder.

"Juliet…gotta help her…" he trailed off, his eyes watering as the tears started to flow freely down his face. Aaron could see them glinting in the dull overhead lights.

"Yes, Juliet," he soothed, pronouncing her name slowly and carefully, talking the man down as though he were a frightened child.

"You helped her."

His actions seemed to earn him a small head movement, enough to reveal the smear of blood arcing down the man's neck.

"She's falling…" he muttered again. He tried to say something else, but it came out as a weak groan.

"No. You saved her." Aaron assured. "She's on her way to the hospital right now."

Sawyer's brow furrowed. There weren't any hospitals on the island…must be the infirmary. He turned his head in the direction of the voice it was pounding to the point he couldn't quite see straight. The world around him was a vortex of colour and sound, making it impossible to tell what from what. He could feel his own pulse throbbing in his throat, keeping time with the rhythmic swirl of his surroundings.

Someone was talking to him, telling him something important about Juliet, but he was just so tired that he couldn't puzzle it together. _Safe_. He heard the word safe.

"Safe?" he slurred; it tumbled out of him in a desperate, forced breath.

"Yeah," Aaron agreed. "Juliet is _safe_," he emphasized, hoping to god it was true.

"But," he added, "She needs you to rest now so that you can see her when she's feeling better."

Sawyer seemed to agree with the prompting.

"…fuckn' tired…" He sighed in a strained voice.

He was so tired that his eyes were threating to close at any moment. His earlier burst of adrenaline had started to burn out of him and Aaron could tell that he was finally beginning to succumb to the hazy buzz of exertion.

"Rest then," he soothed. "You'll feel better if you rest."

"Thanks, Doc." He mumbled sleepily and pressed his head against the passenger door window. The cool glass felt good against his skin, easing the throb that had started to resonate down his jaw. He did need to rest, he thought hazily, he didn't want to, but he was so damn tired.

Aaron didn't have time to assess as to whether the man had fallen completely asleep. He caught sight of Holly and quickly vacated the driver's seat.

"I don't think anyone saw us," she said as she trotted up to him. Jay was behind her with an unconscious Kate held against his chest.

"Macarena guy started karaoke," Jay explained blandly as he reached them. "Congrats, Doc, most of yer colleagues are tone deaf."

Aaron and Holly exchanged glances as Jay shifted Kate his arms. Her head lolled against his shoulder.

"Sawyer?" she whispered, frowning, although her eyes never opened.

Jay ignored her.

Holly leaned into Aaron.

"Is he alright?" She breathed.

He sighed. "He's in shock Hol, so he's dealing with it in the best way he knows how."

"By being a pompous ass?" she added helpfully.

"Nah," Aaron waved her off, grinning slightly. "He's always been one of those. He just needs time to sober up and process all of this…you know it has to be rough when…"

"Something on that pavement must be _real_ interesting," Jay interrupted their huddle. Aaron shook his head and plodded over to where the man was awkwardly trying to fit Kate in the back.

"Give her to me," he suggested, scooting in beside Jack. "We're a little pressed for space here."

Kate whimpered as she was transferred into Aaron's lap. He brushed his hand against her forehead, relieved that she appeared to be unscathed.

"Now you, Jay." He patted the spot beside him.

"Great," Jay huffed, folding himself in and pulling the door shut.

"Happy Fucking New Year, Doc," he grumbled just loud enough for only Aaron to hear as Holly started the ignition. He chose to ignore the comment. The radio buzzed on again, but nobody seemed to stir, Holly quickly turned down the volume and switched it to another station.

"You guys OK back there?" she asked as she pulled out of the parking space.

"A little cramped, but we'll manage." Aaron said, adjusting Kate so that she was partially sprawled across Jack's lap, neither of them appeared to be in any state to complain about the current arrangement. In truth, he wanted the extra room for leverage in case James woke up again and needed to be talked down.

It was an eventless twenty minutes before they pulled into Aaron's the driveway, marked by the giant inflatable polar bear anchored in the middle of his lawn with a wreath around its neck and a Santa hat draped over one ear. In the background his house glowed under the cheerful colours of Christmas lights which traced a crude outline of the large two story.

It was Aaron's idea to wait until Holly had walked Lindsey, the babysitter, to her car before they dared attempt to move anyone.

Jack and Kate hadn't shifted a muscle and Jay had started to doze without quite realizing he was tired. Aaron had watched his head wobble a little too loosely whenever they had hit a bump and he could tell by the slump in his shoulders that the man was fighting sleep with all he had and losing miserably. The combination of alcohol and adrenaline in his system appeared to have finally worn him out. Aaron was feeling somewhat woozy, but straightened up when Holly opened the side door for them and the night air hit him.

"Lindsey's gone home and Caitlyn's in bed," she whispered, leaning in over Jay.

He nodded back at her. "Good, at least it'll make…" he paused "whatever this is easier."

"So how are we gonna do this?" she asked.

Aaron rubbed his forehead. "I guess we can put Jack and Kate in the upstairs bedroom and James on the couch until we make up the pull-out downstairs for him?"

"Yeah, that'll work," she agreed.

"It'll have to, until we figure out what the hell is going on," he said coolly in a tone that he rarely took with her.

"Can you grab the med-kit in the bedroom closet while Jay and I move them?"

Aaron nudged the man lightly with his elbow.

"Think you can manage to bring Kate inside without puking?" he grinned.

Jay gazed back unpleasantly, but didn't complain as Aaron gently bundled the women into his arms. Jack wasn't as easy to shift and hung against his body like a lead weight as he half carried, half dragged the man up the two sets of stairs as quietly as possible.

"Caitlyn's asleep," he mouthed to Jay and gestured to the adjacent room once they reached the top of the landing. "We'll have to keep it down."

He nudged the door to the spare room open with his knee, thankful that Holly had already managed to turn down the bed covers and switch on the lamps on the night-tables. He lowered Jack against the mattress and Jay set Kate down next to him.

"Alright, that's good." Aaron praised. Surveying the unconscious figures.

"They don't look too badly hurt. You mind stripping Jack down and checking him for injuries while I go get your da…James?" he covered quickly.

"Hell, Doc, you want me to buy him dinner first?" Jay pretended not to hear the slip and grudgingly began to remove the man's shoes.

Aaron rolled his eyes and warily plodded his way back outside noting, as he walked down his driveway, that Sawyer hadn't appeared to have moved from where they had left him in the front seat.

He could still fireworks going off in the distance as he opened the passenger side door and gazed across the street. They were lighting up the horizon in hues of fuzzy colour. The cul-de-sac he was living on appeared to be deserted stave for Milo, Mrs. Reynolds's cat who was sprawled unconcerned across her doormat.

"Alright, James." he lightly touched the man's arm, steading him as he threatened to fall out the door.

"How about we head inside and get you a little more comfortable?"

They managed to stand without too much effort before James began to wobble. Aaron slug the man's arm around his neck for good measure. It was only a short walk up the drive before they stumbled into the porch. Aaron didn't bother taking off his shoes, instead leading the man straight through the kitchen, which opened unobstructed into his living room. He helped him settle on the overstuffed couch facing the TV.

Sawyer groaned the second his head hit the soft leather.

"James," Aaron prodded, settling on the coffee table so that he was facing the man. He had a face cloth balled up in his right hand.

"Juliet's safe?" the man mumbled back at him his eyelids twitching and opening half way.

"Yeah. Juliet's safe." It was easier to reassure the man. His clinical 'we don't know yet, but we are doing all we can' seemed too complex an answer for him, even if it was the truth. Aaron watched the way the fear and worry seemed to drain out of him at those words, the reason why he was still awake while the other's had long since given in to whatever force that had brought them here.

Sawyer licked his lips, his throat bobbing as he tried to force something else out. He appeared to give up halfway through the motion and closed his eyes again.

Aaron pressed the cloth against Sawyer's neck, rubbing the blood from his face.

"I figured you'd be up doctoring Jack by now," Holly's voice shook him out of whatever daze he had fallen into. He blinked heavily and trained his eyes on her as she crossed the kitchen toward him.

"I asked Jay to check him for the major stuff," he admitted, barely stifling a yawn.

"I wasn't sure if…" he started to say something, but she seemed to understand. "Thought it would be easier on him if I did this part instead."

They both stared at each other and she knelt down to stroke the stubbled ridge of his jaw. He needed to shave, the extra scruff giving him a rugged and semi-wild look that didn't seem to fit his nature.

"You're doing great," she assured him, easily reading the doubt in his features.

He sighed and leaned his cheek into her touch as her hands slipped around his neck. Sometime during the night his bowtie hand come loose again and their movements caused it to slide down the front of his shirt, threating to fall off entirely.

He choked out a little self-deprecating laugh, worrying that he was only now starting to come to terms with the breadth of what was happening…it had stricken Jay earlier.

"I'm not sure what else I can do for them."

"Be there," Holly said reassuringly.

"Yeah?" he said if it were a question and not a response.

Holly frowned at him, but she let the subject drop. Aaron caught where her eyes where headed and shifted slightly so that he was facing Sawyer again. The man at least appeared to be asleep, or unconscious.

"I know it looks bad, but a lot of it is just grime and dried blood. He has a few cuts on his face and his jaw seems a little swollen, like it was given a good smack, but he's otherwise fine." He yawned again.

"I'd like to try and get him out of Jay's jacket and that jumpsuit, but I really don't wanna risk waking him up," Aaron admitted.

Holly stood up and looked down at Sawyer. He was sprawled on his back with the zipper to his coveralls pulled halfway down his chest, exposing a grubby olive sweater underneath. His arms somehow managed to become awkwardly tangled in Jay's tuxedo jacket. They covered him with the woolly afghan at the foot of the couch a turned out the lights.

Aaron switched on the fluorescent tube light that hug over the stove as he made his way to the pantry for a bottle of aspirin.

"Are you really expecting to be _that_ hungover?" Holly teased.

"Have I ever been 'that hungover'?" he asked in mock offense.

"We'll there was that one time in collage that you…"

He raised his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay," he scoffed.

She grinned back at him.

"Nah, they're for Jay and Jack," he relented.

He had good insight. He could hear Jay shuffling around in the bathroom as they made their way up the stairs. Holly, went ahead of him, padding into their bedroom to sort some extra clothes for their guests.

Aaron ducked into his daughter's room, bending down to rescue, Storm, the stuffed husky who had fallen off the bed as she slept. He replaced the toy and leaned in to kiss her goodnight before turning to wait for Jay on the landing. When the bathroom door did open, Jay shuffled out looking green and downright irritable.

"Aren't you up past yer bedtime?" He retorted snatching the bottle of aspirin from Aaron's outstretched hand.

"Yes," Aaron agreed finally, shrugging. He wasn't exactly the party animal type and Jay knew it.

"Yeah. I'll bet," the man huffed, barely suppressing a groan.

"It's always that last one, ain't it, Doc?"

"No. It's usually the six or so before that, that's the real killer," the older man chided.

"Fair enough," Jay croaked, catching a hint of a smirk. He shook two tablets out of the bottle and handed it back to Aaron.

"Yer enjoying this arn't ya?"

"Probably not as much as Claire would," Aaron started, but his grin faltered knowing there was more to this night than Jay worrying about Claire posting drunken videos of him all over Facebook in the morning.

Jay swallowed hard, not wanting to press the issue. He muttered something about 'sadistic doctors' and jabbed his thumb in the direction of the spare bedroom.

"Did ya know Rip Van Winkle in there talks in his sleep?"

Aaron tried hard not to laugh. "Kate used to tease him about it all the time. How are they doing?"

Jay pinched the bridge of his nose as he tossed the pills to the back of his throat. "Still out cold."

He swallowed hard and bit the inside of his cheek. "How's…"

"James, is asleep." Aaron finished for him. "We cleaned him up as best we could, he could use a good long shower and a change of clothes, but I honestly didn't want to set him off again. He's worried sick about her."

"Probably not worth it." Jay agreed, looking unwilling to pursue the subject any further. He almost didn't want to know.

"Well anyway, Doc," he raised his hand to scratch the back of his neck. "I'd better be…"

"Bed's all turned down for ya, Jay." Holly interrupted as she thrust an armful of clothes into Aaron's hands. She gestured back toward her and Aaron's bedroom.

"Aaron and I are camping in the den."

He looked uncomfortable with the idea and had planned to go sleep in his car still parked in Aaron's driveway until he felt sober enough to drive. He was originally supposed to be going home with Claire tonight.

Aaron took him by the elbow and led him across the landing into the spacious master bedroom, moonlight flooding in from the broad cove window that looked out over the backyard. The bed in the center of the room was large with an overstuffed mattress and a thick duvet pealed back over the top of the sheets.

"Maybe a little shut-eye wouldn't be such a bad idea," he admitted grimly. He really felt like he was going to throw up and he didn't like the premise of doing so in front of the Doc.

"Ya think?" Aaron gave Jay a little shove toward the bed.

"Just don't puke all over my hardwood and we won't have a problem, LaFleur," he teased and pulled the door shut.

He caught Holly tugging blankets from the linen closet and pulled her in for a kiss.

"Making your rounds are you, doctor?" she purred causing him to flush a little. Okay, so maybe he was a little less sober than he seemed to think.

"Just Jack and Kate left," he assured her. "Then I'll be down."

"I've never seen you so anxious to sleep in the den," she returned slyly earning a chuckle.

"Oh, it's just fine when I have company," he winked.

She flashed him a broad smile as he disappeared into the guest bedroom.

Inside, the room was dark, stave for the sounds of heavy breathing mixed with the steady hiss of the air exchanger. Aaron waited for his eyes to adjust before switching on a lamp and setting the bottle of aspirin next to it on the night stand.

Jack was lying on top of the covers in his boxers with one arm flung over Kate, hugging her against his chest. He mumbled something that Aaron couldn't make it.

"Jack?" Aaron knelt to inspect the scene.

"…Not supposed to raise him…" the man muttered in a sleep garbled voice. "…my fault…go back…"

"Hey, easy now. You're not going anywhere at the moment I'm afraid."

He gently prodded the man's shoulder blade resulting in a low groan. The stimulus was enough to coax the man into rolling toward him, which also disturbed Kate. She shifted, cuddling into Jack's back and Aaron could she was wearing a pair of Holly's PJs.

"I just need to get a look at your head, make sure that there's nothing I missed." He explained to the sleeping man almost tripping over his med-kit in the process. He reached in the side pocket for a penlight and pried the former doctor's eyes open with his thumbs, brandishing the light. The man groaned and made a weak swipe at him.

"It's alright, Jack" he soothed, accidently brushing against a particularly deep gash over his temple. He squinted down at it and stood up to switch on the overhead lights.

"That needs to be closed before it gets infected," he told the man, not willing to allow himself the time to think about how strange this really was. Jack had patched him up loads of times, but never the other way around, and this Jack seemed so much younger than the one he knew.

"Just gonna be a little sting," Aaron mumbled, tearing an alcohol pad open with his teeth to clean the wound. He dabbed at it lightly, feeling the man start and struggle to get away from the sensation. Jack yelped and Kate latched onto him tighter so that she was flush with his back.

He quickly sealed the cut with a small laser and patched it over with a cloth bandage.

Jay did a good job of cleaning Jack up, the man's hair was dirty and mud still pooled at the base of his neck, but most of the blood had been washed away.

Aaron caught sight of his sport coat and Jack's soiled jeans and t-shirt tossed in the corner of the room. He left it for the time being, and did his best to tease the covers out from under the sleeping pair's limbs, readjusting them over their bodies in the process. He switched off the lamp and set a glass of water next to the aspirin bottle on Jack's side of the bed.

Aaron shut the door and crept downstairs, finally able to drop the fearless doctor facade he had been wearing. He drew in a deep breath, feeling his very own headache starting to build.


	3. Chapter 3

**Five Minutes to Midnight**

**Three: **"January 1st, 2040"

_"Splashing through the sand bar, talking by the campfire _

_It's the simple things in life like when and where _

_We didn't have no Internet but man I never will forget _

_The way the moonlight shined upon her hair"_

"While we were trying different things…And we were smoking funny things…Making love out by the lake to our favorite song…Sipping whiskey out the bottle, not thinking 'bout tomorrow…Singing 'Sweet Home Alabama' all summer long." Aaron sung in his best Kid Rock impression, much to his six-year-old's amusement.

"Dodo do dodo dodo dododo do…" he drummed his palms on the counter top before spinning on his heels and snagging a whisk from the top drawer.

He pretended it was a microphone. "While we were trying different things…And we were smoking funny things…Making love out by the lake to our favorite song…Sipping whiskey out the bottle, not thinking 'bout tomorrow…"

"Singing 'Sweet Home Alabama' all summer long." Caitlyn sung into the whisk, finishing the chorus for him.

"Jesus Doc, you _have_ been 'smoking funny things'." A voice ground out.

He glanced up to see Jay squinting down at him clad in his black pants and crumpled white dress shirt from the night before.

"Uncle Jay!" Caitlyn launched herself at his legs before the man could react. He groaned, but managed to scoop her up against his chest and give her a peck on the cheek.

"How ya do'n, Squirt?" He asked in an overly cheery voice.

"Great!" She chirped. "Dad and me are making pancakes. Chocolate chip ones."

"Chocolate chip ones!" Jay mimicked, gasping in mock astonishment. "Well ain't yer Dad the culinary genius."

"You're silly, Uncle Jay."

"Caitlyn, honey. Do you mind going down to the den and asking Mom if she wants juice?"

Aaron gave Jay a knowing look as he watched the man gently set his daughter down, ruffling her thick mop of blonde hair in the process. She grinned up at him before ducking between his legs and down the hall.

"How bad on a scale of one to ten?" He asked, once he heard his daughter's feet clumping noisily down the steps to the den and he was certain she was out of earshot.

"Twelve." Jay muttered. "Feels like a god damn gorilla is playing bongo drums with my brain."

"Mmmm…really gotta watch those bongo playing gorillas," Aaron agreed. He reached across the counter for his iphone to turn down the volume on his playlist. Jay looked grateful.

"Coffee?"

The man shook his head. "Doubt it'll stay down."

Aaron made a face. "Aspirin than," he decided. "It's upstairs, I'll be right back."

Jay nodded and pulled out one of the stools tucked under the overhang of the island in the center of the kitchen. He had never felt this hungover in his life he thought as he pressed his cheek against the granite countertop in an attempt to ward off his stomach from voiding the sour liquor that sloshed around inside of him.

The next thing he knew something cold was being draped along the back of his neck, making his entire body tingle. He hadn't even realized he had closed his eyes until he opened them again to see two white tablets and a tall glass of water being pushed toward him.

"Jay." Aaron warned when he let out a ragged groan in protest.

He didn't raise his head from the countertop.

"You're dehydrated. Drink this or I'm taking you in and hooking you up to an IV,"

Jay turned a few shades whiter, muttering something about 'doctors and their damn needles' as he reached for the pills, then the water.

Aaron issued him an approving nod.

"Any word from Claire?" He dropped his head back down between folded arms as he spoke.

"Yes. She called about an hour ago. Just out of surgery and their moving her to the ICU shortly. She had a lot of internal damage, extensive hemorrhaging, ruptured spleen, several broken vertebrae, three cracked ribs, three broken ribs, and a perforated lung."

Aaron gave him a sympathetic look, his skin was about the same colour as the pale granite that adorned his counter.

"But…" he continued. "That being said and all things considered she's in stable condition." He didn't dare tell the man that she had crashed twice, once on the way to the hospital and once in the OR.

"Claire's gonna call you in a bit. She wants to remain on site in case anything else happens so she's catching some shut-eye in her office."

"You…you said she was stable." Jay's flat tone changed to one of alarm.

"She is." Aaron explained gently. "Claire's just being overly cautious, that's all. Dr. Granger was there as was Dr. Carter, believe me you can't ask for a better surgical team. These guys are good. Don't worry, she isn't in any pain. They are going to keep her very heavily sedated for a while to give her body time to heal. She's gonna be OK, Jay."

"Thanks, Doc." Jay sighed and went back to being queasy.

"Maybe you should follow Claire's example and get some more shut-eye yourself?" He glanced at the clock on the oven. "It's only 9:00 AM."

A low whimper to his right prevented him from saying anything else.

"Hang on a sec." Aaron set down the box of pancake mix and padded over to the couch.

"James?" He asked, peering down at the man, his glasses sliding down the bridge of his nose as he tilted his head.

The southerner was on his back, still tangled in Jay's sport coat and groaning loudly as he struggled to force his eyes open.

"Juliet." He breathed through parted lips. "Gotta save her…she falling…gotta…" he lurched forward and would have fallen off altogether if Aaron hadn't caught him and eased him back against the couch with a grunt. The close proximity seemed to jar Sawyer and his head started to roll lazily from side to side as his eyes slowly opened.

The truncated gasp that left his mouth was one of pure confusion. He spotted Aaron standing above him in a faded grey McGill University t-shirt and pair of green plaid pajama pants. Sawyer's gaze fixated on the man for only a moment before his shut his eyes, opening them again a second later. He grunted in confusion when the image did not resolve itself.

Aaron fetched a pen-light from the coffee table and brandished it in front of his face, pleased when the man appeared to track it with his eyes.

"Any dizziness or blurred vision?" He asked clinically, skipping all pretense.

Sawyer blinked at him. "Excuse me?"

"Do you have any dizziness or blurred vision?" Aaron repeated. "You're pupil response seems a little sluggish. Do you know if you hit your head at all?"

"Hit my…"Sawyer grumbled, ignoring Aaron's gesture to stay lying down.

"Son of a bitch," he spat, working his arms out of the black sport coat that had somehow ended up wrapped around him. He threw it to the floor, kicking the heavy blanket that had snared his legs along with it. He stared at the offending items then back at Aaron.

"Who the hell are you?"

Aaron swallowed hard, unsure how to proceed. His hesitation seemed to enrage Sawyer who had shakily managed to get to his feet.

"What's the last thing you remember, James?"

"How do you…" he started to stammer, but something caught him in mid-sentence and he had to sit back down before he fell.

"Juliet," her name was barely a whisper on his lips. His eyes widened, he lifted his hands to his face to rub them.

Aaron noted the grey sheen his face has taken on and frowned, shooting a glance at Jay whose head was still flush against countertop, pretending not to be listening. It was probably better he didn't complicate matters at the moment. The man still seemed taxed out enough that he could only handle one stranger at a time.

"Juliet," Sawyer whimpered in the form of a pain-filled sob that sounded wet and grief ridden. His face contorted into a grimace, forcing Aaron to believe that his grasp of reality was tenuous at best.

"James," he tried again, squatting on his haunches in front of the man which garnered little effect.

"Juliet." The hands rubbing his eyes clenched into tight fists. It was his fault, she's dead and it's all his fault. He should have went with her on that god damn sub so many years ago. He should have let her leave the island. If he had she would still be alive right now. He should have listened…he should have fucking listened.

"JAMES!" Aaron clamped down hard on the thick muscle running from his neck to his shoulder. The pain seemed to bring him out of it.

"Son of a bitch! What the hell did you do that for," he glowered, swatting the doctor away.

"That fuckn' hurt." His right hand slid down his neck to rub at the spot.

"You were spacing out on me. You probably did take a knock to the head at some point," Aaron mused.

Sawyer glared at him, but he didn't try to get up this time, instead letting his head sink back against the leather headrest.

"So you going to tell me what the hell's going on." He asked roughly, suddenly very tired and confused.

Aaron nodded, sensing the man's discomfort. "Alright, if you think you can fill in the gaps."

Sawyer clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth and glared up at him. "Well then you can start with how the hell you know my name."

The young doctor didn't push his luck. "I was on the island with you," he admitted.

"Now hang on just a minute there…" his eyes roamed to the penlight still clasped in Aaron's hand and he gave the man a strange look. "…Doc?"

"Yeah, I'm an ER doc," he agreed, tossing the penlight back on the table.

"Well ya sure as hell weren't on the flight. I damn well think I'd remember a…"

"I wasn't on the flight as such," Aaron countered. "I was born on the island."

Sawyer stared at him and Aaron relented.

"My _mother_ was on 815."

If Sawyer had any idea what was going to come out of the young man's mouth it _wasn't_ this.

"Aaron?" He rasped.

"You got it," Aaron offered him a small smile, but the shocked look he got in response forced him to elaborate.

"You just showed up here last night. I don't really know, there was a bright flash and there you were… unconscious."

Sawyer pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to process what was being told. He ended up closing his eyes and taking another long deep breath.

"We aren't on the island?" He asked weakly.

Aaron shook his head. "No. You're in Los Angeles."

"When?" He really didn't want to know, but he had to ask.

"January 1st, 2040."

"Son of a fucking bitch!"

He wanted to punch something, but as he moved to get up a fierce wave of nausea ricocheted through him making him feel as though his body was smoldering from the insight out. He remembered experiencing a similar situation when the island was skipping through time. It made him sick just to think about it.

"Listen James,"

"It's Sawyer," he snapped at the boy, needing to vent his anger.

"Alright, Sawyer than."

Aaron straightened the glasses on the bridge of his nose before he dared continue, giving the man a moment to let the situation sink in.

"Juliet's in the hospital," he told the man slowly, watching his facial features change as his sleep addled mind tried to keep up. "She is recovering from a major surgery and is very ill."

The intensity of the other man's gaze seemed to burn through him.

"Juliet's alive?" He rasped.

**Thanks for reading everyone. Reviews = Updates :-)**


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